


Fire and Light

by SpraceJunkie



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: M/M, Percy Jackson AU, Trans Jack, aka Camp Half Blood AU, and yknow no straight characters, trans finch, uhhh can I get uh one order of enby Specs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-15 11:16:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12319974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpraceJunkie/pseuds/SpraceJunkie
Summary: Jack Kelly? A Demigod? A son of Apollo? Trans?Crutchie Morris? An amputee with a badass prosthetic? A son of Hephaestus?Specs? Nonbinary? A son of Hephaestus?Finch? A son of Apollo? Trans?All of the above plus more, and maybe some actual plot along the way!





	Fire and Light

Crutchie Morris had always been a scrappy little kid. When he was seven years old, he had run away after one too many close calls he knew were his fault, and he’d managed to survive for almost three years before being taken in by the people at Camp Half Blood. He’d taken care of his own prosthetic, even managed to adjust it’s size when he grew, he’d learned to fight the things that seemed unkillable, and he’d refused to die even when it would have been easier to do so.  
When he’d gotten to camp, people had underestimated him, assumed that because he was small and only had one leg he was weak or incapable, and he’d hated it so much he’d started working on his leg even more, until finally he took off his old prosthetic leg and put on his celestial bronze magic one that he’d designed and built himself, and by the time he was twelve he wasn’t scared to let people know that he could and would fight just as well as any of them.  
But he was still a twelve year old kid, out on his first quest, and that was terrifying, especially while a manticore was steadily advancing, he had a shaking twelve year old demigod who’d never been told he was a demigod hiding behind him, and the satyr he’d been fighting with before was already incapacitated and on the ground behind him as well.  
“Gods now would be a lovely time to like zap him like fast.” He muttered, flinging his crutch up wildly to deflect another spike as it aimed for his shoulder. When no lighting strike immediately took out the manticore, he bent his knees and got ready to fight.  
The manticore, while fast, wasn't as coordinated as it wanted Crutchie to believe. It tripped over its front paws every step, but managed to turn every trip into more of a jump, so it wasn’t obvious right away. Crutchie, though, was familiar with the tactic, and knew that all it would take to fully trip it would be something to mess up its landing, either by hurting its back paw or by making the stumble bigger than normal. Crutchie crouched lower, bending his bronze ankle in the pattern to release the foot into his hand, the specially weighted blades extending quietly.  
“Wha...what are you doing?” The boy behind him whispered, almost unable to speak. Crutchie ignored him for the moment, narrowing his eyes and letting his fighting instincts take over, pulling the blade of his crutch in as he threw the boomeranged foot so that it momentarily pinned the manticore’s foot to the ground, just long enough for it to trip all the way. Using his crutch, he pushed himself forward, extending the blade on his bronze calf so he could kick at the manticore before it fully recovered from its fall. As he landed, barely avoiding another spike, he kicked at the boomerang, latching his foot back into place and finishing the extension of his leg so that he had a full length sword extending from his hip.  
It had taken a good few months, several trips to the Big House infirmary, and a mandatory dull blade until he proved he wouldn’t be cutting of his real leg until he’d been able to fight using his leg as his sword, but at this point it was almost second nature. He breathed out steadily, launching himself up as high as he could and holding his breath, partly out of nervousness and partly because he knew his hit was going to land and he didn’t want to breathe in the the dust storm killing something as big as a manticore would generate. He pointed pulled his real leg up to his chest and let his weight drive the tip of his bronze leg into the back of the manticore, closing his eyes against the dust as it kicked up into his face. He landed in a roll, kicking his leg back into normal shape and standing up quickly.  
The other boy was still hunched over, visibly shaking, and the satyr, Ace, was stirring but not awake.  
“What...what’s happening?” Crutchie slipped his crutch into its place on his back, and offered a hand to the boy.  
“Manticore. There’s probably something more coming, we need to move. Ace, Ace, c’mon dude, we have to go.” Ace’s eyes opened fully, but they were crossed and unfocused.  
“Help me help him up. We need to get farther from here, as fast as possible.”  
“I...I don’t understand.”  
“Just hurry, we’ll explain later.”  
It took a few hours to walk far enough away that Crutchie felt safe, and as they walked Ace recovered little by little until he was walking in a straight line on his own. They had set up camp as best they could a few miles away from where they started, Ace had started a small fire, and the boy was hugging his knees to his chest, rocking back and forth anxiously.  
“Please, explain something?” He was still whispering, but almost begging more than asking.  
“It isn’t safe here. We should make it to camp tomorrow, but until then you just have to trust us.”  
“I don’t even know who you are, how am I supposed to trust you?” Crutchie was chewing on some weird vegan jerky Ace had supplied, and he supposed, judging by the way the boy’s eyes widened, that his attempt at a reassuring smile hadn't been very helpful.  
“I’m Crutchie. This is Ace.”  
“He has really hairy legs.” Ace nodded seriously.  
“What’s your name?”  
“Jack.”  
“How old are you?”  
“Twelve.” Crutchie nodded, studying Jack’s face. He didn’t have any features that stuck out as belonging to one godly parent or another. Not the gray eyes of Athena, the upturned eyebrows of Hermes, the blunt facial features that could be either Ares or Hephaestus. He had that same sort of aura that all demigods had, that feeling of power that radiated from him even as he was curled in on himself. Ace hadn’t been wrong about finding a demigod boy, that was obvious, and it was also obvious that the boy was powerful. Manticores were rare enough that it took a powerful scent to draw them out. Jack was staring at Crutchie at the same time Crutchie was staring at him, and Crutchie could see the gears turning, and tried to put himself in Jack’s place.  
Clearly a runaway, wearing loose, on the edge of being ragged clothes, he had been carrying a crowbar when Ace had called camp to get Crutchie to help, but it had been lost somewhere along the way, scared, all of those things Crutchie had been at one point. But something about this boy was different.  
Crutchie had known when he was little that the reason the scary things had kept happening to his family had been something to do with him, that he had attracted scary men and animals that shouldn’t have existed, but Jack seemed more like he thought it was because of him, in an entirely different way. Almost as if he thought he had been attacked because of who he was, not what he was.  
“Do you have family?” Ace asked.  
“No.” Jack replied, looking down at the ground.  
“You ran away.” Crutchie confirmed his thoughts.  
“A while ago.”  
“How long?”  
“A few years.” Jack had stopped rocking anxiously, but he still had his knees pulled tightly up to his chest.  
“On your own?” Crutchie was impressed. He’d survived three years, but he wasn’t powerful enough to attract monsters as large as the one’s Jack had survived.  
“I’ve managed.”  
“Clearly. How did you kill monsters?”  
“I never killed nobody. My crowbar worked just fine to beat the assholes away.” Jack didn’t make eye contact. “Sides, you killed that...that thing.”  
“Manticore. It’s...well, we can explain later.”  
“Why can’t you just explain now? I want to know! What is happening!” A dam seemed to break inside Jack and he yelled the questions, making eye contact with Crutchie. Crutchie finally swallowed his mouthful of jerky and shook his head.  
“We’re not safe here. We’ll get someplace safe tomorrow, and then everything will make sense, I promise.” Ace had already curled up next to the fire and was snoring loudly, and Crutchie tilted his head towards him. “Get some sleep, it’s a long walk to where we get picked up.” Crutchie laid down himself and closed his eye, listening carefully until he could tell Jack was asleep and not going anywhere.

It ended up taking them all of the next day and part of the next to get back to Camp Half Blood, and by the end of the trip, Crutchie had a few guesses as to who Jack’s parent was. When they talked, Jack had admitted he didn’t know anything about his biological family, that he’d been in foster care since he was super little and didn’t remember his biological family, that he’d been passed from home to home for a long time and had run away when he was nine. He hadn’t said why, but the look he’d gotten in his eyes told Crutchie that there had been a reason, a good one. He also seemed to flirt, completely unconsciously, with everyone. With Crutchie, which was ridiculous, and Ace, which was more ridiculous, and eventually with Argus, which was the most ridiculous. When they got to camp, he blushed and stuttered all over the place when they were greeted by Lisa, head of Athena, and that seemed to rule out Aphrodite, or it would have, had Crutchie not known Romeo, who was a child of Aphrodite and the worst flirter Crutchie had ever met. But over the next few days, Jack wasn’t claimed by Aphrodite, and while he was still adjusting to the fact that hey, the Greek gods are real one one of them is your parent!, he was starting to fit in. He didn’t seem to be great at anything, but he was decent at a lot of things, and that right away seemed to point to Hermes.  
By the time Jack had been there a week and a half, there was an almost camp wide betting pool going as to where he’d fit in, thanks to some saucy Hermes boys.  
Crutchie hadn’t been allowed to cast his vote, since it was only open to people fourteen and over and even though Crutchie had just as much if not more experience fighting monsters than most of the older boys, they still didn’t let the younger kids in on most of their schemes. Last he’d heard, though, the pool was pretty evenly split between Hermes and Aphrodite, and more and more people were joining in as time went on.  
Crutchie showed Jack around, but since he was always with Hephaestus cabin and Jack would be with the Hermes cabin at least until he was claimed.  
_I’m pretty sure he’s Apollo._ Specs signed while waiting for the next section of their newest sword to finish cooling before they moved to finishing the tip. _Something about him just says sun god._  
_Really? I get more Aphrodite. He flirts with everyone._  
_Have you met Apollo?_  
_Twice._  
_And you’re telling me Apollo doesn’t flirt just as much as Aphrodite?_  
_Fair point._  
_Trust me, Crutch, I know an Apollo when I see one._ They tapped their glasses, reminding Crutchie that the magical lenses let them see through the Mist.  
_The Mist doesn’t hide godly parents, vlaca._  
_No but these let me see clearly, and he’s an Apollo._  
_Guess we’ll find out soon._  
_Hopefully._  
Specs hummed thoughtfully as they turned back to the sword.

Finch, one of the Apollo campers, agreed with Specs.  
“He’s got the smile. Dad’s has this obnoxious, bright white, painful smile, and most of us have it to. A runaway has no right to have teeth as perfect as he does.” Finch smiled as if to prove his point, and Crutchie did have to admit that Jack shared the bright white, straight teeth.

In the end, Jack was at camp for almost a month when he was finally claimed. He was comfortable, mostly, by then. He had found his place in the Hermes cabin, he was a decent archer and an okay sword fighter, and he showed off in art. Jack of all trades, master of none, every time somebody said that Jack laughed.  
Ultimately, though, the symbol that appeared over Jack’s head wasn’t the caduceus of Hermes or Aphrodite’s Blessing. Both Specs and Finch triumphantly looked at Crutchie when a glowing golden lyre suddenly appeared over Jack’s head, leaving him looking confused.  
“So, what, my godly parent is the god of...the letter U?”  
“Apollo, God of the sun, archery, music, leader of the Muses, etc, etc, don’t look at me like that Chiron that’s how he introduces himself, and you know it.” Finch grinned brightly as he spoke. The Apollo cabin all moved over to make room for Jack, and once he was sitting with them, Crutchie could immediately see what Finch had seen.  
Demigods came in all shapes, sizes, races, genders, sexualities, but they all had a certain family resemblance. High cheekbones, often but not always, and the noble grace Crutchie had been able to pick out around Jack when he’d first met him. Beyond that, most cabins resembled each other.  
Aphrodite kids, even ones that weren't obscenely attractive, had this look of just knowing they’d be able make anyone they wanted to fall in love with them.  
Hephaestus kids looked entirely uncomfortable wearing much other than work clothes, and most of them had the same muscular build, although that tended to develop at camp.  
Hermes kids all had the permanently mischievous look, you knew you couldn’t trust them as soon as you saw them, at least around wallets.  
And looking at the Apollo kids, Jack among them, Crutchie saw the same resemblance Finch had seen. The blindingly white smiles, and ridiculously straight teeth. They all, actually, flirted with everyone, if Crutchie thought about it. And once Jack was sitting with them, with his brand new bunch of siblings surrounding him, welcoming him, Crutchie could certainly see the resemblance.  
“Hail Jack Kelly, son of Apollo.” Chiron said solemnly, once the Apollo campers had settled down a bit. Crutchie smiled at Jack from his seat just slightly above the Apollo campers, and Jack smiled back, already looking at home with his siblings.

**Author's Note:**

> Yo! Once more, rather than updating a WIP, I'm starting a new one! Oops! Sorry! But not really because I love this AU!
> 
> As always, please comment, kudo, sell your soul to the devil to grant me motivation, all of the above things will keep me writing!
> 
> Also, as always, come yell with (or at) me on tumblr, @the-donnynova-band !


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